Taking the long way round.

Send in the clowns

Twenty two days into February and I finally got to go to another live comedy show. This is officially part two of my Sparkle Dress Comedy Challenge, following last month’s trip to Greg Davies in Leicester. You can read more about that here.

Last night was John Kearn’s show ‘Don’t Worry They’re Here’ at DINA venue in Sheffield. It was also my 34th birthday. I sent a link to some youtube clips of John to some friends and invited them to come with me, but I did let them know that I’d not be offended if it wasn’t their thing. Comedy can be very divisive, you laugh or you don’t and there’s nothing worse for me than laughing my head off with friends who just don’t get it, it stresses me out and I’d rather go on my own and enjoy it than be worried about how others are going to react.

I’d been at work all day, headed home for speedy food and chucked some mascara and the sparkle dress on before heading back to town for the show.

Fuzzy picture from a broken iphone,

but I feel I needed to give evidence of the sparkles.

When I arrived at DINA, I got a coke and sat on the end of the third row, got chatting to a lady who’d nipped out to get a coffee and I think she got most of my life story. That seems to happen quite a lot, perhaps I overshare. Oh well…. I did find out that she’s a speech therapist and plays sax in a swing band, so it wasn’t all about me. My former doctor sat down in front of me and we had a little catch up, which was lovely, she was the first doctor in about ten years who listened to me about how I was feeling and it was thanks to her that I was diagnosed with depression and got on the ongoing road to recovery. Thanks Doctor Nagel!

The room filled up, but the front row did not, so when he came onstage as the MC/support, Sean Morley encouraged us to move forward and fill it up. The ladies of the second row headed forward, so the third row was encouraged to move up, then the 4th etc., so naturally I headed right to the middle of the front row.

Sean had some mic issues so came on and off an number of times and then encouraged us to share how we were feeling, so I let him know it was my birthday. After about 5 mins of trying to fit us on a horseshoe of happiness (I’m a 7) he announced the interval and I got chatting to my new neighbour, who turns out to be an almost literal neighbour as she lives about a 10 min walk away from me!

John came onstage in his trademark tonsured wig and false teeth and got into it. I don’t want to describe the show too much because I don’t want to spoil it for anyone and there are still tickets available for the rest of the tour. There was some audience interaction, which was mainly with me, hooray, because I was sat in the front, in sparkles and I’d said it was my birthday, I think really I’d asked for it. It was nothing mean, I wasn’t picked on or anything, just answering a couple of questions about observations of the world.

The other ladies in the front row were making brilliant snorting, laughing noises for the whole of the hour and the rest of the audience were with them. It was an hilarious hour, some poignant moments and one of the better shows I’ve seen. I enjoyed it so much that I’ve actually booked to go again in May at Battersea Arts Centre, since I’ll be in London anyway.

I didn’t take any sneaky pictures this time, as you can’t be sneaky in the front row! So here’s a picture of the flyer.